Organ reed construction



April 29, 1952 L. E. HAYsLETT ORGAN REED CONSTRUCTION Filed July 20, 1949 Patented Apr. 29, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE GRGAN REED CON STRUC'EN Lamar E. Hayslett, Shelbyville, Tenn., assigner to The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, North Tona- Wanda, N. Y., a corporation of Ohio Application July 20, 1949, Serial No. M5371 (Cl. 84u36@ 12 Claims. l

This invention relates to musical tone generators and is more particularly concerned with a reed frame such as is used for mounting vibrating reeds in an electronic musical instrument.

Vibrating reeds have been used for a musical tone source in a variety of different instruments, including electronic musical instruments, such as electronic organs. In order to provide realistic musical ei'iects the reeds in electronic musical instruments have been prevoiced by bending them into different shapes to cause various sets of reeds to resemble different musical instruments such as a flute, etc. All reeds have a certain amount of musical inertia and when they are set in vibration as by an air blast there is a tendency toward a noticeable time lag before the tone output from the reed becomes apparent. To insure that the reed will begin to vibrate more quickly and to further insure fullness and richness of tone, the reed is bent and twisted to allow a larger volume of air to pass over the edges of certain portions of the reed.

To secure the most nearly perfect result possible, reeds must be shaped by hand which consumes an unwarranted amount of time and makes musical instruments using these reeds quite expensive.

Among the important objects of this invention is to produce a shaped reed frame so that different volumes of air will pass over diierent portions of the associated reed to cause the reed to speak promptly and impart a rich and full tone to the reed.

Another object oi this invention is to provide a shaped reed frame useable in conjunction with a straight flat reed to produce results comparable with those obtained from a shaped or prevoiced reed.

Other and further objects and advantages of the current invention will be apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. l is a fragmentary partially schematic end View of an electronic organ in which the reed frame that is the subject of this invention may be used;

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic view showing the connections of the various reed banks-in an electronic organ;

Fig. 3 is a top view of a reed and reed frame, the latter being the subject of this invention;

Fig. 4 is a side view of the reed and reed frame shown in Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view taken substantially along the line 5--5 in Fig. 3; and

Fig. 6 is a cross sectional view taken substantially along the line 5 6 in Fig. 3.

in the device shown to illustrate the operation of the current invention, i represents the console of an electronic organ which has a plurality of banks of hand-operated keys 3 and foot-operated pedals 5. A row oi stop tablets 1 operates in conjunction with coupler boards 9 and Il to selectively operate tone generators I3 in response to movement of the keys 3 and pedals 5. Blowers l5 supply air to a wind chest I1 and pallet valves I9 admit air to the tone generators i3 to cause the reeds in the tone generators to vibrate.

The signals from the tone generators are ampliiied by an amplier 2i, the ampliiication of which is controlled by a volume control 23. The output of the amplifier may be used to feed further stages oi amplification or may be connected directly to a reproducer such Aas a loudspeaker.

The tone generators i3 more specically comprise a series of reed frames 25 each having a reed 21, one frame and reed being illustrated in detail in Figs. 3 6. The reed frame 25 which is the subject of the current invention is molded of plastic or like material in the current illustration, but may be made of metal if so desired. The reed 21 is secured to the reed frame 25 by means such as the rivets 2S through one end. The free end of the reed 21 overlies an aperture 3| which is substantially rectangular at the top of the reed frame. The end 33 of the aperture adjacent the free end oi the reed extends downwardly for a distance and then is extended to form a curved end portion 35. The longitudinal sides of the aperture are inclined slightly so that aperture is larger at the bottom of the frame than at the top for the best passage of air. The end oi the aperture adjacent the fixed end of the reed extends vertically. Electrical potential is applied through a metallic block 31 set in the reed frame 25 and through the rivets 23 to the reed 21. One or more tone pickup screws 39 are threaded in a frame lli above the reed with the free ends of the screws adjacent the reed. The frame is electrically interconnected with the amplier 2l. When the reed vibrates the capacity between the reed and pickup screw changes in accordance with the movement of the reed, as is more thoroughly explained in the patent to Hoschke 2,015,014, and a varying potential is produced which is applied to the amplifier.

Prior to this invention reed frames were generally flat along the top. I have, however, provided curved or cut out portions 43 and 45 atop the reed frame Vadjacent the free end of the reed,

and these cut out portions may be of unequal depth as shown, providing slightly diierent contours for the two curved surfaces. Upon directing a flow of air against the top surface of the reed, the air will ilow over the edges of the reed and down through the aperture 3l to set the reed in vibration. The two edges and the free end of the reed define with the frame a plurality of areas. As there are enlarged areas for the air to iiow through adjacent the curved surfaces 43 and 5, greater volumes of air will pass over the edges of the reed and through the aperture in these areas. The eiect is essentially the same as if a lat topped reed frame were used with a reed curved upwardly and then somewhat downwardly adjacent its free end. As the surface is cut out to a greater depth than the surface 43, a somewhat larger volume of air vwill flow over the edge of the reed adjacent the surface 135. This effect is substantially the same as that obtained by using a twisted reed with a flat topped reed frame. Once the correct shapes for surfaces i3 and 135 have been determined, the reed frames may be reproduced as many times as desired by means such as molding the dup licate frames from plastic, obviating the necessity of the hand work attendant upon the shaping of reeds.

Groups of reeds and their associated frames may be prevoiced by curving portions ori the frames as described so that the output signal from the adjacent frame 4l will be similar to the tones produced by an organ having stops such as flute, pedal, viole, diapason and celeste. Each group of reeds is arranged so that the metallic strip (il of each frame of the group is in contact with a common strip carrying a source of potential so that all of the reeds in a group are electrically connected in parallel, as is indicated in Fig. 2 in whichl represents the bank of flute reeds, l the pedal reeds, 5i the viole reeds, 53 the diapason reeds, and the celeste reeds. The reed banks are also connected to ground by resistance capacitance networks 51. All of the tone screws for each bank of reeds may be connected together as at 59, 6l, 63 and 65 in Fig-2 by means such as a common frame 4l or may be connected in parallel to form two or more separate groups as the pickups 6l' and 69 associated with the viole reeds. are then connected to an amplifier as 2| by any desirable means. A groove 'l is provided near the extremity of each reed frame so that the reed frames may be individually removed from the parallel combinations. Each reed and frame is carried in a cell in which it is mounted by sliding the reed and frame longitudinally into place. When it is desired for any reason whatsoever to remove an individual reed and frame, it is only necessary to insert a hook in the groove ll and pull the reed and frame from their cell. It is apparent that a substantially flat reed and associated shaped reed form has been presented which produces tones of predetermined quality and which are started rapidly upon application of an air blast to the reed.

It is apparent that modications of the device as shown and described may be made which fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims, and I therefore intend to be limited only by the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. In a musical instrument, a musical tone generator comprising a wind driven substantially flat vibratory reed and frame means disposed All of the outputs from the tone screws f Cil 4 longitudinally of said reed for restricting the ilow of air past said reed, said means having nonplanar surfaces disposed longitudinally of said reed to cause volumes of air varying with the surface coniguration of said frame to iiow past different surfaces of said reed.

2. In a musical instrument, a musical tone generator comprising a wind driven substantially nat vibratory reed and an apertured reed frame, said reed being mounted in substantial alignment with the aperture in said frame and dening with said frame a plurality of areas, the reed frame being non-linear adjacent said aperture so as to leave unequal sized areas between said reed and said frame for passing volumes of air varying with the non-linearity past .diierent surfaces of said reed to impart a fullness of tone to said reed.

3. In a musical instrument, a musical tone generator comprising a substantially :dat wind driven vibratory reed and a reed frame carrying said vibratory reed, said reed frame being apertured to allow passage of air between the reed and the frame, said frame adjacent the aperture being provided with unequal relieved areas so that volumes of air varying with the relieved areas will pass adjacent to different surfaces of said reed.

4. A musical tone generator as dened in claim 3 in which one end of the vibratory reed is secured to the reed frame and the other end is free to vibrate adjacent the aperture in'said reed frame.

5. In an electronic musical instrument, an electrical musical tone generator comprising an electrically conductive wind driven vibratory reed forming one plate of a capacitor and an apertured electrically non-conductive reed frame, said reed being mounted in substantial alignment with the aperture in said frame and dening with said frame a plurality of areas, the reed frame being relieved adjacent said aperture so as to leave unequal sized spaces between said reed and said frame for passing volumes of air varying with the relieved areas past different surfaces of said reed, and an electrically conductive insert in said reed frame for bearing against a source of electric potential, said insert being electrically connected to said reed.

6. In a musical instrument, a musical tone generator comprising a substantially flat wind driven vibratory reed and an associated elongated reed frame, said reed frame having an elongated aperture passing entirely through said frame to allow passage oi air past said reed, said reed being mounted on said frame substantially in alignment with said aperture, said aperture being smaller at the top of said frame than at the bottom and surfaces of said reed frame adjacent said aperture being recessed to cause volumes of air varying with the recessed surfaces to pass over surfaces of said reed.

7. In a musical instrument, a musical tone generator comprising a substantially flat wind driven vibratory reed and a reed frame, said reed frame carrying said reed being apertured adjacent said reed to allow the passage of air past the surfaces of said reed, portions of the top surface of the reed frame adjacent the aperture being removed to cause volumes of air varying with the removed portions to pass by diierent surfaces of said reed to insure quick starting of said reed and impart fullness of tone thereto.

8. A musical' tone generator as described in claim 7 in which more material is removed from the top of the reed frame on one side of the aperture than is removed from the top of the reed frame on the other side of the aperture.

9. In a musical instrument, a musical tone generator unit comprising a. wind driven vibratory reed and associated reed frame, said reed frame having recesses adjacent said reed to cause the passage of volumes of air varying with said recesses past diierent surfaces of said reed frame, and a recess adjacent one end of said reed frame engageable by a hooked instrument whereby said reed frame may be readily slid from position for replacement.

10. A musical instrument as defined in claim 1, wherein said reed comprises one element of an electrical tone generator, and wherein there is provided a cooperative electrical element in juxtaposition to the reed influenced by the vibrations thereof, to provide an electrically generated tone modied by the shaping of said frame means surfaces.

11. A musical element as dened in claim 3,

wherein said reed comprises one element of an 20 6 thereof, to provide an electrically generated tone modified by the relieved areas of the reed frame.

12. A musical instrument as dened in claim 6,

wherein said reed comprises one element of an electrical tone generator, and wherein there is provided a cooperative electrical element in juxtaposition tc the reed influenced by the vibrations thereof, to provide an electrically generated tone modied by the recessed surfaces of the reed frame.

LAMAR E. HAYSLETT.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 28,060 Briggs May 1, 1860 499,767 Warren June 20, 1893 2,015,014 Hoschke Sept. 17, 1935 2,276,884 Scott Mar. 17, 1942 2,368,842 Kealoha Feb. 6, 1945 

